BBC Inside Out - Likely Lads RODNEY BEWES Q&A It's 40 years since The Likely Lads first hit our TV screens. Inside Out pays tribute to this comedy classic which is as fresh and funny today as it was when it was first screened. The Likely Lads is one of the most enduring shows in television history. Frequently repeated and often hailed as a classic, it gave the North East a voice for the first time when it was originally screened in 1964. Over the course of 20 episodes, our folk heroes and Geordie partners in crime, Bob Ferris and Terry Collier, extolled the rights and wrongs of everything from beer and birds to Newcastle United and nightlife. Bob and Terry became Geordie icons, as well known as Andy Capp and as revered as football heroes like Malcolm McDonald and Bobby Moncur. Goodbye to all that The enduring success of The Likely Lads owes much to its timeless humour, its nostalgia for the past, and the camaraderie between its two Geordie characters. The Likely Lads compare the price of a pint "The only thing to look forward to is the past", goes the lyric of the title song of the TV series.

The song and the sitcom spoke volumes about the social and economic revolution of the Sixties and Seventies when Tyneside was undergoing a huge transformation. Tyneside was grappling with massive slum clearance, the loss of its manufacturing industries, and a cultural revolution. The times they are a' changing In Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads Terry returns from a stint in the army and tries to find work in a North East that has changed dramatically since he's been away. The Facts There were three series of The Likely Lads between 1964 and 1966 A Likely Lads film was made in 1976 with the story focusing on a disastrous camping holiday Two series of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads were made between 1970 and 1973 plus a Christmas Special Many of the show's master recordings were 'lost' when the master recordings were wiped at the end of the 1960s There were 16 radio episodes of The Likely Lads in the late 1960s His attempts to find a new role is a tale of the times, and is as powerful a piece of social commentary as a groundbreaking drama like The Boys from the Blackstuff.

In the film of The Likely Lads Terry and Bob visit a demolition site - it's where their favourite pub used to stand, and they moan about the changing times. The theme of nostalgia for the past recurs throughout the TV series. In the follow-up Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads we revisit Bob and Terry seven years on, and the social references become more marked. Newcastle has become a symbol of the times and a backdrop against which the likely lads live their lives. "The area became important. It became a character," says writer Dick Clement. Geordie stereotypes? Bob and Terry are sometimes accused of being Geordie stereotypes, but there is a warmth and restless edge to the characters which cuts through the stereotypical image of the macho male. The lads chat up a couple of girls. A young Wendy Richard is pictured to the left Terry is renowned for his bigoted views and old-fashioned attitudes, but he's also a moaner and a cynic, criticising all and everything around him. Bob is struggling to shake off the shackles of the Geordie macho image and is trying to become a 'new man' with middle class aspirations, always trying to better himself.

They both have one foot in the past, but they are constantly battling to makes sense of the changing world around them. Friends and neighbours The Likely Lads struck a chord with audiences around the country, with 27 million viewers at its peak. Bob and Terry were like real people, the sort of lads you might meet down the pub on a night out in Newcastle. Inside Out Quiz Are you a likely lad or lass? Take our quiz and test your knowledge of the Likely Lads... TAKE THE TEST Geordie heroes Ant and Dec are big fans and they can remember watching the programme when they were kids. They were inspired by watching the first 'Geordie' actors to make it big on TV. Ant explains, "When Dec and I first moved to London and shared a flat, we had likely lads nights. We've been fans all our lives." It comes as no surprise that the Geordie duo chose to make A Tribute to the Likely Lads based on the famous football episode of the original in 2002. Rodney Bewes even made a cameo appearance. Faraway places The Likely Lads was a revolution in television - there were no other programmes set on Tyneside when it was first broadcast.

Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais explain how difficult it was to break the mould. Fancy coming back to my place love? "You couldn't have cast anything on Tyneside - there weren't enough Geordie actors then," they recall. In fact none of the main actors in The Likely Lads was a Geordie. Rodney Bewes was born and bred in Yorkshire, James Bolam was a Sunderland lad, and Brigit Forsyth came from Edinburgh. The North East setting was also new to television, and it paved the way for Geordie dramas and comedies such as When The Boat Comes In, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Spender. The series launched the careers of writing team, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais who went on to make Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen Pet. New era, Newcastle? Today's Newcastle is vastly different from Tyneside in 1964, but what would Terry make of the city 40 years on? "He'd find plenty to moan about, but he'd see what the city had achieved architecturally and culturally, and he'd be proud," says his creator Ian La Frenais.

La Frenais believes that Bob and Thelma with their aspirations and attempts at self-improvement would also have embraced the new North East. Looking back Rodney Bewes thinks that The Likely Lads gave Tyneside a sense of pride in itself. "We gave it a bit of Newcastle pride perhaps. I think when you see the bridges, the art galleries, the coffee bars and the social life and the quays, I think it's progressed a bit - and I hope we all have." Don't quote me - Famous banter... Terry "I'd offer you a beer but I've only got six cans". Bob "In the chocolate box of life, the top layer's already gone and someone's pinched the orange cream from the bottom". Terry "This town might have a new Civic Centre mate, but it doesn't disguise the fact that it's a dead end". Terry "I don't just hate Chelsea. I hate Arsenal, Spurs, Crystal Palace, West Ham In fact I hate all London clubs". At the hairdressers ... Hairdresser "Do you want the beer, egg or herbal tonic?" Terry "Nothing to drink for me, thanks". Bob "They're shampoos you fool!".

On people Terry "I haven't got much time for the Irish or the Welsh, and the Scots are worse than the Koreans". Bob "And you never could stand southerners". Terry "To tell you the truth I don't much like anyone outside this town. And there aren't many families down our street that I can stand". On the Civic Centre ... The Likely Lads - All The Tropes The Likely Lads All Subpages Create New The Likely Lads was a black and white Britcom that ran from 1964 to 1966 on The BBC . It followed the escapades of two young working-class men Oop North , Terry Collier (who was proud of his roots) and Bob Ferris (who wanted to better himself and become middle-class). It was created by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and starred James Bolam as Terry and Rodney Bewes as Bob. However, what most people remember now is Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, a revival that ran from 1973 to 1974, still written by Clement and La Frenais.

In this show, Bob had succeeded in becoming middle-class and was engaged to the very middle-class Thelma, when Terry suddenly reappeared (he'd joined the army at the end of the original series), throwing his life into confusion. Tropes used in The Likely Lads include: Whatever's happened to the likely lads? | Express Yourself | Comment | Daily Express VIDS Whatever's happened to the likely lads? The actors who played them haven't spoken in more than 30 years. As it's revealed that the duo could return to our screens, we find out what Bob and Terry would be doing now... 00:00, Wed, Nov 7, 2007 FRIENDS REUNITED: Rodney Bewes at his peak in the '70s BEER, birds and football. Relying on that simple formula, the exploits of two working class Geordies captured the public imagination. One a cynical waster, whose only concern seemed to be where his next pint was coming from; the other determined to better himself, marry the boss’s daughter and get a foothold among the middle classes. Yet in spite of their differences, the former infant school classmates managed to cling on to their friendship.

Bob Ferris and Terry Collier, better known as the Likely Lads, became national icons in the Seventies as they sat in the pub wallowing in nostalgia and putting the world to rights. At its peak the show attracted an audience of 27 million viewers and regular repeats are a testament to its enduring popularity. And James Bolam More than three decades later Rodney Bewes, who played Bob, has spoken of his desire to revive the comedy. He’s held talks with the original scriptwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Bewes, 68, is convinced the Likely Lads can become a hit again. But a simmering feud with James Bolam, now 69, who played Terry, stands in the way. They fell out when Bewes let slip that the intensely private Bolam was about to become a father and they haven’t spoken since. That was 31 years ago. Clement, now living in the US, reveals that he and La Frenais couldn’t resist bringing the lives of two of their favourite characters up to date. They're blokes you would meet in the street. “Bob was always very ambitious,” says Clement.

“He would have gone into the building trade, founded his own small business but gone bust. Terry would have been hit by a bus while crossing the street in Newcastle and been awarded compensation. Of course, seeing his friend who never did a proper day’s work now having all the money would be a bitter irony for Bob. We always felt the best comedy came when he was miserable.” Clement says that Bob’s marriage to the disapproving Thelma would have survived despite Terry leading him astray. “Thelma and Bob were joined at the hip,” says Clement who, with his writing partner, went on to create Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. “There’s a great strength about Thelma. They’d probably have kids.” Naturally, Terry would be single. While he still sees Bewes occasionally, Clement has not bumped into Bolam for seven years. “We had dinner,” says the writer. “James never wanted to be associated with just one role. I think that he should have got over that now though because he’s had a very varied career. I’m surprised he still feels he has to be protective. “They were a great partnership. We were going for a very realistic comedy and people found them believable.

They were the sort of blokes you could meet in the street. Later on, comedies such as Men Behaving Badly tapped into that.” The Likely Lads, which was first shown in 1964 in black and white on the then recently launched BBC2, is seen as one of the first programmes to give a voice not only to the working classes but the North. Viewers immediately warmed to Bob and Terry. In the early Seventies, the pair returned in colour in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? By now Terry had a failed marriage, while ambitious Bob was carving out a career and dating the redoubtable Thelma. Unusually for a revived sitcom, it proved even more successful than the original. There was even a film spin off in 1976, focusing on a disastrous camping holiday. The script sparkled, the on-screen chemistry between Bewes and Bolam established them as a classic double act and in its own way the Likely Lads became a powerful social commentary. A changing world was portrayed, with the lads struggling to make sense of what was going on. They rowed and moaned constantly but remained great mates.

“I’d offer you a beer but I’m down to my last six pack,” Terry says in one episode. Who can forget the pals desperately trying to avoid hearing the result of an England football match so they can watch the highlights later? They succeed but it transpires the game has been postponed. IT didn’t matter that neither was a Geordie – Bewes is a Chelsea-supporting Yorkshireman while Bolam hails from Sunderland – or that the first series was filmed in Willesden Junction, north London. Off-screen the pair were also pals but the friendship collapsed over a trivial incident in the same year the Likely Lads film was released. Bewes was already the proud father of triplets when he revealed to a newspaper how Bolam had discovered that he was also to become a father. Realising what he’d done, Bewes telephoned to apologise but there was silence before the line went dead. It was the last contact between the two and Bolam even refused to appear as a guest when This Is Your Life honoured his old friend in 1980. Their acting paths diverged. Bolam went on to confirm his talent in When The Boat Comes In, Only When I Laugh and The Beiderbecke Tapes.

He also played the serial killer Dr Harold Shipman in an acclaimed television drama. He is married to the actress Susan Jameson and lives in West Sussex. Still notoriously private, he once said in a rare interview: “I’m having new track rods fitted on my car. I don’t want to know anything about the man who’s doing it. Why should he want to know about me?” Bewes continued treading the boards but struggled to make ends meet. There came a point when his overdraft reached £21,000 and he considered selling his home in Cornwall. In recent years his one-man theatre shows have been a success but he craves a return to sitcoms. When Ant and Dec starred in a Likely Lads tribute, Bewes had a cameo role. He has said of the rift with Bolam: “It’s all terribly sad. We used to like each other so much. My wife Daphne was very fond of him. Now he won’t even talk about the Likely Lads. He says it’s dead in the water. He’s wrong. People still have great affection for it. They smile at me in the street and recognise me because of it.

“He also vetoed repeats of The Likely Lads for 18 years. He justified it by saying: ‘It’s a retrospective step in my career.’ But eventually they did show the series again and I’d love to have asked Jimmy: ‘Did you send the repeat cheque back because of your principles?’” Bewes, now prepared to offer an olive branch, spoke excitedly this week about a new series or one-off special. “It would have been tremendous,” he said. “Instead of being the Likely Lads, we’d have been the Unlikeliest Grandads. We would have been sitting on a park bench in a pair of grubby grey anoraks, feeding the pigeons and grumping about youngsters.” Carla Lane, who wrote the Liver Birds, would also love to see Terry and Bob return: “The original was brilliant comedy because they were down-to-earth lads and we all knew their kind. It could work again but it would have to be more than two old men reminiscing.” Lane has her own ideas on how the pair might have aged. “Terry was always the more interesting character and he would still be living on the fringes, maybe even as a beggar, who is reunited with Bob in the street.

His old friend is a retired company director, who lives a dull life but has political aspirations.” Brigit Forsyth, who played Thelma, is thought to be enthusiastic about a revival but there has been no official approach. “It’s always James Bolam who has spiked it,” says a friend. “Brigit has very fond memories of the programme but she gets asked about the Likely Lads so often it’s a case of can we talk about something else.” Ultimately, Clement fears there may be “too many difficulties” to allow a revival. He rules out casting another actor to work alongside Bewes. The writer of the comedy classics says he’s saddened by the rift between Bewes and Bolam. He hopes that the Likely Lads will, at least, one day shake hands, for old times’ sake. Face of the Day: Rodney Bewes (From HeraldScotland) Jobs Business Directory Local Info Dating Buy Sell Book an Ad Face of the Day: Rodney Bewes Rodney Bewes is not afraid to talk about his most famous role, as snobby Bob Ferris to James Bolam's laddish Terry Collier in the classic BBC comedy series The Likely Lads.

''Anyone who doesn't want to talk about their best-known work deserves a swift kick,'' he told the Daily Record several years ago when asked about Bolam's reluctance to talk about the programme which, at its peak, was watched by 27 million viewers. ''Martin Shaw has the same attitude towards The Professionals. But that doesn't mean he and Jimmy send back the cheques after repeat runs. I bet they don't.'' The man's got a point, you might say, but the truth is, while The Likely Lads served as a launch pad for Bolam's career - his subsequent roles included Jack Ford in When the Boat Comes In, as well as parts in The Beiderbecke Affair and Only When I Laugh - Bewes didn't fare as well. At the height of his fame in the mid-sixties Bewes was reportedly earning #250,000 a year and drove around in an #80,000 Bentley. When The Likely Lads ended in 1966 he wrote and starred in Dear Mother - Love Albert which was based on his letters home when he was a teenager living Loading article content in London.

At the prospect of a sequel to The Likely Lads in 1973, Bewes took a break from Dear Mother for two years. When Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads ended in 1975 he produced and presented Basil Brush. He has done much theatre work since then, recently appearing in a one-man show which he took to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - an adaptation of Jerome K Jerome's Three Men In A Boat in which he played all the characters. It involved him driving around Britain in an 11-year-old Vauxhall Nova with a coathanger for an aerial, lugging a 24ft boat from venue to venue, and being his own road manager, producer, director, and backstage crew. At the end of the performance he would invite the audience on stage, or maybe have a drink with them in the bar. You can just hear him stealing a phrase from Terry Collier: ''I'm not proud.'' The son of Horace and Bessie Bewes, he was born on November 27, 1937, and although he does a word-perfect impersonation of one, he is not a Geordie.

His father worked in electricity showrooms in Bradford and his mother taught mentally-handicapped people. Bewes was a sickly child who spent most of the first 12 years of his life in bed, suffering from asthma. The theatre fascinated him from a very young age and he would spend endless hours contructing stages out of shoeboxes in between reading Greek tragedies and Dickens to fill the time when he should have been at school. When he was 12 he saw an advert in his father's newspaper for the BBC Children's Hour television plays. He applied, auditioned, and was cast. His asthma diappeared there and then. He left Bingley, West Yorkshire to go and live alone in London, in a basement flat in Belsize Avenue, when he was 15. He attended Rada and worked nightshift in the kitchens of the Grosvenor Hotel in Park Lane. He ended up sharing a flat with Tom Courteney and the two were cast in the John Schlesinger film Billy Liar, as well as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. It was in the latter that he was spotted by Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement for the part of Bob Ferris.

''They picked us and didn't pick anyone else. We weren't on a shortlist,'' he told the Guardian in 1995. He has been married to Daphne for nearly 30 years and they have four children, including triplet boys. n Rodney Bewes appears in another episode of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? BBC2, 7.30pm The Likely Lads (1976) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Terry is divorced from his German wife and has a Finnish girlfriend Christina. At Thelma's suggestion they join her and Bob on a caravan holiday but due to a mishap the men get separated ...

See full summary » Director: a list of 27 titles created 28 May 2012 a list of 157 titles created 03 Jun 2012 a list of 35 titles created 27 Dec 2013 a list of 39 titles created 30 Jun 2014 a list of 32 titles created 9 months ago Title: The Likely Lads (1976) 6.7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Terry and Bob from The Likely Lads (1964) continue their life after Terry arrives home from serving in the Army to discover that Bob is about to marry his girlfriend Thelma. Can Thelma lead... See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Brigit Forsyth The adventures of two "likely lads" ostensibly set in the North East of England (but filmed in Willesden Junction, London). Terry and Bob have been friends since childhood. Bob is the ...

See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Don McKillop Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are junk dealers, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. But Harold, who likes the ... See full summary » Director: Cliff Owen Alf and Elsie are getting old, Rita's left home, Elsie's confined to a wheelchair. Alf must now do battle with the Social Security system. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Carmel McSharry, Arthur English A working-class Cockney bigot with a biased and expirienced opinion of everything shares them bluntly and almost carelessly. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Anthony Booth, Una Stubbs Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are junk dealers, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways... See full summary » Director: Peter Sykes BBC Television comedy detailing the fortunes of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own ...

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Corbett, Frank Thornton Now a qualified chef, Robin from "Man About the House" (1973) sets up home with his girlfriend, and a business with his girlfriend's father. Stars: Richard O'Sullivan, Tessa Wyatt, Tony Britton Edit Storyline Terry is divorced from his German wife and has a Finnish girlfriend Christina. At Thelma's suggestion they join her and Bob on a caravan holiday but due to a mishap the men get separated from the women. Thelma mistakenly accuses Bob of infidelity and their row is heard publicly as they are in a van with the P.A. still switched on. Bob and Terry then holiday without the girls and,in a hotel at Whitley Bay,score with both the landlady and her daughter but have to make a hurried,trouserless,exit. Terry decides to emigrate and Bob joins him for a farewell drink on board his ship. However Terry changes his mind at the last minute and disembarks, realising too late that Bob is still on board and heading for Bahrain.

Written by don @ minifie-1 See All (3) » Taglines: Emotion blazes across the big screen as Bob and Terry knock down the frontiers of human knowledge and Newcastle ale. Genres: 2 April 1976 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Más que amigos See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Alun Armstrong (milkman) would later star with James Bolam in New Tricks (2003) in the early 21st Century. See more » Goofs The damaged Vauxhall Chevette has registration plates with a different spacing, indicating it was probably a different vehicle. (The original undamaged car reappears later in the film). See more » Quotes Thelma : She must have quite a hold on Terry. Bob : Probably at this very moment. Thelma : Maybe we should invite Chris and Terry to badminton club. These two actors were so good together and the script equally top notch why oh why in these days of poor sequels and the flogging to death of anything half-decent must we be deprived of this fantastic idea / partnership. The main players are still alive - so too the writers - what is the problem BBC ??

If it is still Bewes & Bolam's dislike of each other that is simply not an excuse - many actors have turned out memorable roles opposite people they detested. Common sense and professionalism should enter the scenario here as future generations will not thank us for allowing this wonderful pairing to die off - DO IT NOW. You did it with 'Only Fools....' Whether they like it or not these two characters/actors are a NATIONAL INSTITUTION and they achieved legendary status in their own lifetimes - something very rare indeed - this should simply NOT BE ALLOWED to wither on the vine. If you are reading this Messrs. Bolam and Bewes...please bury the hatchet (if that is indeed the problem). Even if only for the sake of posterity...Delboy has gone, so too Victor Meldrew.....Blair's Britain must have something to look forward to.....your nation expects. Must more licence-payers money be thrown at a seamless line of Antique / Boot Sale / Move to the country / Flog it / DIY / Cookery programmes?

To say nothing of those awfully bad sensationalist fly-on-the-wall 'Reality' programmes which only serve to provide a stage for and inevitably generate yet more moronic and talentless 'wannabes'. I recently met up with an old work colleague after 30 years and it's been great - please let Bob Ferris and Terry Collier do the same. As both would now be heading down the retirement road, a nice twist would be Terry having finally turned out to be the more successful of the two whilst Bob (& Thelma's) fortunes have stagnated on the Elm Lodge Housing Estate courtesy of occupational pensions that didn't live up to their expectations. They could meet at an airport ......having recently sold his string of Costa Del Sol bars, a flush, sun-tanned Terry returns and literally bumps into Bob re-stocking vending machines in the airport lounge "I do this part-time purely to keep active, you understand, kidder" Come on..MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR A NATION CRYING OUT FOR A DECENT SIT-COM....I've started it off, all you've got to do is carry it on. 13 of 15 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? | The Likely Lads Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Likely Lads Wiki Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? 72pages on The show followed the friendship, resumed after five years apart, of two working-class young men, Bob Ferris ( Rodney Bewes ) and Terry Collier ( James Bolam ). Set in Northeast England , humour was based on the tension between Terry's firmly working-class outlook and Bob's aspirations to join the middle class , through his new white-collar job, suburban home, and impending marriage to prissy librarian Thelma Chambers ( Brigit Forsyth ). Since the ending of the original series, in 1966, Bob has left factory life behind for an office job with his future father-in-law's building firm (something which leaves Bob even more desperate to retain favour with Thelma and her family). But what Bob does for a living is not a major factor in the show; more important is the fact that he is now a white-collar worker, and (at Thelma's urging) is joining badminton clubs, attending dinner parties, and — in all sorts of ways — appearing to Terry as aspiring to join the middle class.

Terry thus sees his own army experience and solid working class ethos as giving him moral superiority over Bob. But he finds it hard to adjust to all the changes which have occurred in the five years he's been away. As implied in the lyrics to the programme's theme song, the 1970s series plays on both lads' feelings of nostalgia for the lost days of their innocent and reckless youth. Both characters are depressed by the demolition being carried out on the landmarks of their youth, but Bob, who works for a development agency, puts forward that it can be seen as progress. Bob also lives in his own semi-detached house on a recently-built estate, whereas Terry lives with his mother in a 19th century house, which he claims has far more charm than the one owned by Bob, where "The only thing that tells you apart from your neighbours is the colour of your curtains." Indeed, in the opening credits shots of Terry show him along with the older and more industrial buildings of the city, with Bob displayed along with modern, less attractive development.

The word "likely" in the title referred, in the 1960s series, to those showing promise, but also those likely to get up to well-meaning mischief; but, as the 1970s title implied, the mischief days were (or at least, perhaps, should have been) behind them now. Yet, in reality, life was still seen by both Bob and Terry as something in which the only things that really mattered were beer, football and sex — though not necessarily in that order. As Terry says at one point, in disbelief, "After all, there are some people who don't like football!" The conflict between what Bob had become, and what he saw himself as, led him to be impulsively inclined to follow the lead set by the more headstrong Terry (especially after a heavy drinking session), who led them recklessly into one scrape after another. And Terry frequently behaved badly, his working class instincts dominating Bob's better judgement. But whatever the plan, they rarely got away with it. Nemesis, in the shape of Thelma (and, to a lesser extent, Terry's sister Audrey) was usually waiting just around the corner.

Indeed the battle of the sexes was a frequent theme of the series. Bob usually blamed his drinking, heavy smoking, poor diet and reckless behaviour on Terry: a view which Audrey and Thelma only too willingly agreed with. This may have been true in part, but actually Bob needed little persuasion to stay out drinking with Terry, or to behave accordingly. The show was firmly based in the tradition of Northern comedy, in that much of the humour arose from the fact that Bob and Terry were living in a strongly matriarchal society. They were, in point of fact, surrounded by a sea of women. Bob was henpecked alternately by Thelma and by Thelma's mother; and Terry was henpecked by his own mother and his sister Audrey, and by the various women he dated. There were no strong male influences in either Bob or Terry's life: neither Bob's father nor Terry's ever appeared, and on the few occasions that we saw Thelma's father he was usually being henpecked by either Thelma or her mother. The thirteen episodes of Series 1, aired in 1973, were all self-contained.

But nonetheless they were loosely linked together by two common threads: the earliest ones feature Terry's attempts to settle down again, following his discharge from the Army; and the subsequent episodes revolve around the preparations for the wedding of Bob and Thelma. In contrast, the Series 2 episodes the following year were not entirely self-contained: many of them formed parts of related storylines. For instance, the series opens with a two-part story concerning Terry's romance with Thelma's younger sister. There are several two-part stories; and in one instance a single storyline is developed over four episodes (beginning in "Affairs and Relations"). This is never taken so far that it's necessary to the comedy to have seen the previous episodes; but, if you have, there's a stronger unity to this series than in the previous one. [1] [2] Terry and Bob are arrested in One for the Road.The show's catchy theme song, "Whatever Happened to You", was written by Mike Hugg (of Manfred Mann ) and La Frenais, and performed by Hugg's session band under the name Highly Likely. It made the lower reaches of the UK Top 40 in 1973.

Mike Hugg also wrote the theme tune to the spin-off 1976 feature film, entitled "Remember When". The complete first and second series of the 1970s show (including the Christmas special) are now available in the UK on Region 2 DVD, as two BBC releases: "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?: Series 1" (Catalogue No. BBCDVD1957) and "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?: Series 2" (Cat. No. BBCDVD1991). The 2006 BBC release, The Likely Lads Collection (a 5 disc box set: cat. no. BBCDVD2110), contrary to certain reports, does include both the final episode of series 2, entitled "The Shape of Things to Come", and the 1974 Christmas Special (as an extra feature).

Contents Edit Cyril Collier (Terry and Audrey's dad) Leslie Ferris (Bob's dad) (Note: It was established in the 1960s series that Bob's father was in fact deceased) Linda Collier (Terry and Audrey's sister) Frank Clark (Bob's original choice for best man) Nigel "Little Hutch" Hutchinson (a sex-mad pal who always has a racing tip ready for Terry) Hugh and Janey (Bob and Thelma's new middle-class friends) Mr Clough (Cloughy to the Lads, played by Barlett Mullins; he was their workmate in the original 1960s series, and now runs a newsagents) Jutta Baumgarten (Terry's German wife, from whom he's separated) Maurice 'Memphis' Hardaker (a member of a skiffle group called Rob Ferris And The Wildcats, he was also mentioned in the original 60s series as work colleague Morrie Hardaker) Deirdre Birchwood, an ex-girlfriend of Bob's, frequent references to her became a running gag in the first series Wendy Thwaite, another ex-girlfriend of Bob's with whom he had his first sexual experience.

Radio series Edit The 13 episodes of Series 1 were adapted for radio, with the original television cast, and broadcast on Radio 4 in 1975, from 30 July to 22 October. This series is periodically re-broadcast in the "classic comedy" hour on digital radio channel BBC Radio 7 . Edit Before the Seventies series was made, the cast had already been re-united twice, in 1967 and 1968, to record sixteen of the original television scripts for two series (of eight episodes each) on BBC radio, the scripts for which were adapted for radio by James Bolam. To emphasise continuity, the opening section of the title credits at the start of each Seventies episode includes a short montage of black-and-white stills photos of Bob and Terry in scenes from the 1960s series, presented as if in a photograph album. The leather-bound photo album which Bob gives Terry before the wedding, in the episode "End Of An Era", is also the one seen in the opening credits.

To avoid bad feeling over billing, Rodney Bewes and James Bolam were alternated in the opening credits, so that one week Bewes was billed first and the following week Bolam was. In the closing credits the billing was reversed, with whoever had been billed second in the opening credits being billed first. At recordings of the show Bolam was clearly irritated at times by the fact that Bewes did not always know his lines, and he did not trouble to conceal this irritation from the studio audience. The problem may have arisen because the lads always drank real beer in the pub scenes. Frequent re-takes meant they would sometimes have downed eight pints by the end of a recording. Bewes maintained his connections with The Likely Lads, appearing in a cameo role as the old newspaper seller in a 2002 ITV re-make of the series' most popular episode, "No Hiding Place", starring Tyneside presenters/actors/entertainers Ant and Dec , which aired under the title "A Tribute to the Likely Lads". Bewes wrote an autobiography, "A Likely Story", which was published in 2005.

He is currently touring in his various one-man theatre shows, one of which is based upon the works of Jerome K Jerome. In 1995 and 1996 the series was repeated in its entirety on BBC 2 . It went on to become a short-term staple of cable channels, and was again shown on satellite and cable tv in 2008/9, but has not featured on terrestrial TV in the UK since 2000. It has, however, been released on DVD. And the movie spin-off usually appears at least once a year on TV, around Christmas. One of the most notable continuity points about the show is that Terry has been away in the Army for "five years". However, there was a real-life gap of seven years between the end of the original series in 1966 and the sequel in 1973. Also, there are numerous references in the Seventies show to the Lads' shared adventures in 1967, plus citations of that year as the time when Terry was last in town.

And, from the audience's point of view, Terry was last seen in the radio series which was broadcast during 1967 and 1968. Taken all together, it suggests Terry's army service lasted for the five years from 1968 (i.e. the end of the radio series) to 1973. Terry's full name is Terence Daniel Collier, born 29 February 1944. Bob's full name is Robert Andrew Scarborough Ferris, born a week earlier. These dates can be worked out from dialogue in the episode "Birthday Boy". The 'Scarborough' in Bob's name comes from the fact that he was allegedly conceived there, but this is contradicted in the opening flashback sequence in the 1976 feature film. Terry's 'silver tankard' joke in his best man's speech at the end of Season 1 (in the episode "End Of An Era") also seems to imply that he, not Bob, turned 21 first. Terry is younger than his sisters Audrey ( Sheila Fearn ) and Linda (who is never seen). Their parents are Edith and Cyril Collier.

Terry's father is not featured in either series of this show; neither is Bob's father, Leslie. Bob's mother, Alice, occasionally appears. Bob's father had died 12 years previously (as established in the Sixties episode "Friends and Neighbours"), so wasn't around when Bob - an only child - was growing up. Terry's dad is neither dead nor absent: he is continually referred to in the Seventies series, and also in the feature film, but is never actually seen (although, in the opening flash-back in the film, a back view of him is briefly visible, which is clearly James Bolam; and Bolam also provides the voice-over dialogue in that scene). Thelma's full maiden name is Thelma Ingrid Chambers. Thelma's father, played by Bill Owen , is George Chambers. Her younger sister is Susan, who lives in Toronto, Canada with her accountant fiancé Peter. The lads attended Park Infants School, Park Junior School, and Park Secondary Modern. Thelma was with them for infants and juniors, but then went to the grammar school.

Notable school romances for the Lads included the revered (but sadly never seen) Deirdre Birchwood, who was the basis of a running joke in Series 1, where any mention of her (or of any other former girlfriend of Bob's) was guaranteed to upset Thelma. (A Deidre Birchwood actually appears in an episode of the Bewes vehicle, Dear Mother, Love Albert. She is referred to in many episodes of that programme. Her name derives from a real-life person Bewes knew - according to his memoir.) The lads also were in the Scouts together. Bob lost his virginity to Wendy Thwaite, according to the Series 1 episode "I'll Never Forget Whatshername", who scored 8 stars (out of 7!) on his scoring system. Terry's never-seen German wife is called Jutta (pronounced Uta) Baumgarten. They married in November 1969, but split up seven months later, in June 1970, when West Germany defeated England in the 1970 FIFA World Cup .

Confusingly, Terry later says they were married for two years "on and off", which further clouds the continuity issue of Terry's time away. She was due to appear in the episode "End Of An Era", played by April Walker, but the scenes featuring her were omitted from the broadcast version. Terry's address is given in the dialogue as 127 Inkerman Terrace ("No Hiding Place"); but external shots (in "The Ant and the Grasshopper") clearly show a different house number. Bob and Thelma live at Number 8 of an unspecified avenue on the Elm Lodge Housing Estate. Bob's immediate neighbours at his new house are the Lawsons and the Jeffcotes, again never actually seen in the show. A couple called the Nortons are also later referred to as living next door. It is revealed (in the episode "Storm in a Tea Chest") that the boys used to be in a skiffle group called Rob Ferris And The Wildcats. Other group members included Maurice 'Memphis' Hardaker, named after a real-life friend of the show's co-creator and co-writer Ian La Frenais .

The Lads' workmate from the 1960s series, Cloughie (originally played by Bartlett Mullins), does not feature, other than a passing mention in the first episode that he now runs a newsagents. Two running jokes in the show are never fully explained: Terry's supposedly injured leg, which he claims to have injured in the Army ("I never talk about it"), and his aggressive preoccupation with being referred to as 'wiry' rather than as 'thin' or 'slim'. The latter is, in fact, a continuation of a running gag in the original 1960s series, in which Terry was paranoid about being thought weedy. The pubs frequented by the lads include The Black Horse (which is their most regular 'local', featuring buxom barmaid Gloria), The Fat Ox, The Drift Inn and The Wheatsheaf. Others mentioned in passing include The Swan, The Ship, and the Institute. Friends of the Lads who are regularly spoken of but never seen include Frank Clark (Bob's original choice for best man, who had the same name as a Newcastle United F.C.

player of the time), and Nigel "Little Hutch" Hutchinson (a sex-mad pal, who frequently has a racing tip for Terry). Bob's new middle-class friends who we hear of but don't meet include Hugh and Janey; but a new pal we do meet (in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "The Ant and the Grasshopper") is affable Londoner Alan Boyle, played by Julian Holloway . Christopher Biggins makes several appearances as Podge Rowley, a friend of the Lads, including in the episode "Birthday Boy" and as an usher at Bob's wedding in "End Of An Era". He would reappear in the next big television hit for Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, Porridge, as would Brian Glover (Flint in "No Hiding Place"). The episodes "I'll Never Forget Whatshername" and "Storm in a Tea Chest" were based in part on elements in the 1960s episode "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" The titles for the 1974 Christmas Special call the show simply The Likely Lads. The opening scenes are set in late September, on the day of Terry's successful driving test.

Exterior shots were filmed on Tyneside and around the North East, while interiors were shot at the BBC Television Centre in London. The genuine affection held by Clement and LaFrenais for the golden age of Hollywood movies is reflected in the show. For instance, nearly all of the episode titles (from "Strangers on a Train" to "The Shape of Things to Come") are based on the titles of Hollywood films; and the script frequently features jokes about popular movies (such as Terry's dig at Bob, on learning that he's becoming middle-class, that his new friends include 'Bob and Carole, and Ted and Alice' - a reference to the 1969 film of that name). The BBC decided not to commission a third series of the show, partly because Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais had written a pilot script for another 1973 series, entitled Seven of One, in which Ronnie Barker appeared in seven different situations from different writers, each of which was a try-out for a possible series. The BBC decided they liked best the one by Clement and LaFrenais, who found themselves suddenly offered a new series, starring Ronnie Barker, which became the television comedy Porridge.

Writing and production for the new show, which debuted in the autumn of 1974 and ran for three series, made it impossible to schedule a further series of The Likely Lads. Instead, Clement and LaFrenais began to develop a one-off script, which became the Likely Lads feature film, which was eventually made in 1976. Edit Main article: The Likely Lads (film) In 1976 a feature-length movie was released, written by Clement and La Frenais, which was directed by Michael Tuchner. By this time both lads had moved house (Bob and Thelma to a detached house, and Terry to a high-rise); and Terry now had a Finnish girlfriend called Christina ("Chris"), played by Mary Tamm . The movie opened with the Lads lamenting the demolition of their favourite pub, The Fat Ox. It then did what so many film spin-offs in the Seventies did, taking the regulars out of their normal environment and sending them off on holiday. The result is a caravanning holiday for Bob and Terry, accompanied by Thelma and Chris.

The complications resulting from the trip lead to Terry and Chris splitting up, as a result of which Terry decides to go away, signing on as a crewman on a cargo ship. Bob and Terry sneak one last late-night drink together aboard Terry's ship, anchored in the docks; but Terry has second thoughts the morning after and elects to stay at home. Bob, however, awakes - hung over - aboard the ship, as it sails for Bahrain. This was an ironic reversal of the ending of the original Sixties show (where Terry, missing Bob - who had joined the Army - joined up too, only to discover that Bob had been discharged with flat feet ). Ian McDiarmid , who went on to play the Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in four Star Wars movies, made his film debut here, playing a vicar. Future 1980s sitcom icons Vicki Michelle and Linda Robson also made cameo appearances. Vicki Michelle had already appeared, as a different character, in the second series of the Seventies show (in the episode "The Ant and the Grasshopper").

Any future plans for the lads were never announced; but if they existed they were scuppered by Bewes and Bolam falling out. Edit In 2008, The Gala Theatre in Durham staged the world premiere of "The Likely Lads", adapted for the stage by Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais and directed by Simon Stallworthy. The title roles of Bob and Terry were played by David Nellist and Scott Frazer respectively. In May 2011 The Tynemouth Priory Theatre, in Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, were granted the rights to become the first non professional company to stage the production. It became one of the theatres most attended productions selling out well in advance for all performances. Terry was played by Brendan Egan and Bob by Stu Bowman.

now they back as Ant and Dec Rodney Bewes (Actor) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Rodney Bewes Male Born Nov 27, 1937 Rodney Bewes is an English television actor and writer who is best known for playing Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom The Likely Lads (1964â66) and its colour sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973â74), and in the various radio series based on them (1967â68 and 1975), and in the big screen film The Likely Lads (1976).… Read More related links Old And New Chart Singers Perform Henley Standard Google News - Jul 18, 2011 'Regular visitor Cilla Black was accompanied by Reading FC chairman Sir John Madejski while Antony Worrall Thompson and <mark>Rodney Bewes</mark> were among the local celebrities who attended.

The festival, now in its 29th year, opened on Wednesday last week with a' Michael Fassbender Is Formidable In X Men: First Class Evening Standard Google News - Jun 03, 2011 'Charles (James McAvoy, ever so cuddly, in fact looking a bit like the young <mark>Rodney Bewes</mark> with a touch of lipstick) is being donnish in Oxford. But they have to save the world. Dr Schmidt, now known as Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), is revealed to be a' Whatever Happened To... Bbc News Google News - May 26, 2011 'In the first episode of the Likely Lads, Entente Cordiale, Terry (James Bolam) and Bob (<mark>Rodney Bewes</mark>) return from Spain, their first holiday abroad.

Tynemouth Priory Theatre director, David Cosgrove, said: &quot;The Likely Lads marked a revolution - there' A Likely Story Takes To The Stage Chronicle Live Google News - May 19, 2011 'TV sitcoms The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads made household names of actors James Bolam and <mark>Rodney Bewes</mark>, and created two iconic characters in Terry Collier and Bob Ferris'

Question: How are Bob Ferris and Terry Collier known collectively?
Answer: The Likely Lads